Irrigation by Al. C. Joy Publicity Director San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation Fresno

8/14/2019 Irrigation by Al. C. Joy Publicity Director San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation Fresno

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Tke Realt! Blua Book ol Cal.ifomio

A!. C. JoYPebli.cil! Dire.lor

Etn Joaar.in Li4lrt & Paucr Catrorarianft6no


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IrrigationB? AL C. Joy

, ^sa,n J oaq.u;4uflllea Twia|t ol Stc,tc-The Bcginninsot fteat !orming-The Modesto-Tuttockroject_ Caittornitmgdlton Surucu-A Srper-lrr i |dt ion Systcm.HE great state of Californiacontains 01,000,000cr.es.Olthese16.000.000re va ey tand"a.pt.Ut" to iniin"tuecliitiri_-iron, the remarnder being lalgely mountain and desert area. Offf ,,f{i*_*ig#lt1g'*'l'*xllg*,:'i:ifi:*r*i

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SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY TYPICAI, OI THD STATE. Obviously,n any slud) of farming condiLionsnd farminc Drob_|elns, ne urns to the San JoaquinValley for matedal. And ln firstsurvey,,one ealizes-that. because onditionsana prottems are soiyplcal,.lreres to be [ound he wholeslory of Ca]ifomia larmins.' to , ctrmateand water comprise he trinity ot aglicultural"sur._cess.San.JoaquinValley soil, Iargetyof sandy t".riirr.il,tll" ,i,i_lurpa$ed in feltilily in all the world.' Clima{e s iemperate,with hotaurnmers,.hich materiallyaid plant gr.owth,mate ttre t.uii v ieidneavy dtth sugarcontenl.andgive idealconditions or sun{u}ing ofDtoducts.. Early settlerB founil soil ard climate only; there was no

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TheReo)tuBlueBookof Catilornia

TIIE BECINNING OF RE!I] IARMING

275


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1276 Tke Real,t! Bl,ueBook of Co,Li,fr"LitLthe wholegravity systernof the valley. His canal took uater fromKingis River at the edgeol the eastern ootbills and brought t to theplains. In a few years ts bankswere inedwith fertile farms. Othrditches were dug until a network of then covered he floor of thecentral valley to a distanceof twenty-five or even hirty miles fromthe foothills. Real farming had made ts start ir the San JoaquinValley.The wheat ffeldsgladually gave place o vineyard and orchard;new torlrnssprangup, and old ones ook on a more permanentand anore prosperous rowth. For twenty years ntensiveagriculture wasdependententirely upon the gravity ir gation systems. But tlegravity ditcheswere limited in the extent of the tellitory they couldcover. They took the water direct ftom the stream low bv meansofhead atcs nddiversion ams. urhadno r"se|voi.sor siorage urposes- In low water yeaN the supply was nsufficient o go around.Then into the Valley came he secondman with a vision. He1vasA. C. Wishon,who introducedpunrpingby electricity.

WATER WELLS SUPPLEMENT RIIICATIONDITCHESAt the foot of the Sieras in this county lies a beautiful. fertileten'itory, almost fr'ostless,ard ideally suited to the grcving of citrusfruits. The watei problem had always beenserious here. In the Por-teNille dist ct there were a {ew ditches fed from the Tule liver. Inyears of heavy rainfa-ll there was water elough lor. everybody and thefarmers got along amicably. But in dry years cer-taiii priorities of

ripadan rights 'were exelcised and many of the fameis found them-selves with practically no water supply whatever.. Bickedngs,law suits, bitter leuds resultd. SometimesmeetinEswere held to dis-cussways and mpansoi rpl ieving hc si luarior, bui np\e| wpre lhereany steps toward relief. Then an olchardist found a solution. Hesank a well, attached a gas engine pump to it, and had all the v.ater hewanted. Immediately followed a genral sinkiDg of wells, and theterdtory to the no*h of Poderville, in the Linds.ry and Strathmoredistricts, was quickiy convetted into a vast olange grove.Here begar the secondgreat phase ol valley irrigatior. Todayit qxtends over-perhaps a half million acres. The lines of the Sa.nJoaquin Company are stretching steadily fsrther. ard fatther west-ward, out on the brown plains which a quarter of a century ago wereregarded as fit only for sheepgrazing in the spliDg of the year. To-day these plains are retuming an annual Dr.oductionworth millions ofdollals.The farmer fortunate eDough to have a short water lift findselectrical pumpirg superior to the best gravitj' system ever devised.The man with a heavy lift patiently pays higher po\rer- bitls and issometimes envious of his fellows who are under gravity and so havlessexpense. The pump water obviously lessenscultivation ploblems.Weed pests, such as Johnson and Ber-mudagrass, are never swept inacross the lands as sometimes often happens where gravity water isused. And the fanner with the pumping system can irrigate whenaird as often as he pleases. But it is just as obvious, and it has beendmonstrated in many spots, hat constani pumping must lower watertables, and that the successful continuance of pu p irrigation must


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The Rea,l.ta l,ueBook ol Cahferhin 277run hand in hand vrith more extensive useof gravity irrigation. .Thegravity water placedupon the lancl soaksdown to subterranes[ chan-nels and replenisheshe underg?ound upply for pumping in otherlocalities. THE MODESTO-A!'RLOCKPROJECTThe greatst ir gation system of the valley today is that of theModesto-Turlockistrict of Stanislaus ounty. A great reservoirhasbeenbuilt at Eon Pedro, on the Tuolumne river, analhence by an ex-tensive system of main canals and lateral ditches is carried out uponthe plains, with the result that the veritable ernpire of marveloislyridh prcduction has been brought under cultivation.The Modesto-Turlockdistrict is a completedproject. Mercedcounty, ong held back in its developmentby lack of water, is buitdinga greatreservoiron the Merced iver and will eventuallyhave 200,000acres nnder ditches. Madera county is taking the final steps in theofganization of another huge project that will irrigate more than onemillion acres. The many iruigation systems of Fresno county are to-day seeking ways and means of reconciling conflicting rights anduniting in one great distdct to construct a storag reservoir at PineFlat, some bidy-five miles east of Fresno. The Pine Flat districtwill guafanteean amplewater supply for 600,000 cles now r,hollyor partially under the gravity systems,and approximatelyan addi-tional 400,000acrsnow entirely without water, or dependmt uponpumping. Another project in the stage of formation is in Ker1rcounty,where eventuailya half million acreswill be gusranteedanamplewater supply from storage eservoirson Kern river.Bul vr'hen ll theseprcjects are completed nd {he San Joaquinvallet/s immediatewater supply is fully dist"ribued, here will stillbe a vast acreageeither wholly unproductiveor only partially pro-ductive. This is ihe land lying on the western side of the valley andout of reach of ihe $avity canals. Much of it can be irrigated bymans f pumping,.agl'eatdealof it cannotperhapsbe profitablysoilrigated because f the distance rom the sudace to th water sndthe remendous umping ift thus necessary.

CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION SUR'V1EYThe problem of bringing all this land under irrigation can besolved, owever,and to find its. solution the California IrrigationA$ociation is undertaling a campaign or a completionof a sur.veyof all the water resources f the state. InsDiration or ihis Darticu-lar compajgn s to be found n lhe super-irritarion plans pres;nted othe state four yeam ago by Colonel Robe* Marshall of Patterson,Stanislaus ounty. ColonelMarshall was for a quar-terof a centuryin the governmentgeodetic uNey. He hasspentyears n Califonriastudyingher streams,her rain and snowfall,her spritg and summerIun-off from the water sheds, all ihe possibilities of her water devel-opment. The plan he eventually brought to public attention was sogigantic in its conception that it was with difiiculty he obtained ahearing. Even after he did get a hearing, however, and obtainedserious onsideration f his proposal,he encounterdesistanceromengineirs and other experts, who insisted that the plan was imprac-ticable. Be that as it may, t did contain one remendously ractical


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278 The Bedtg Bl,ueBook ol Cs,l,iforainthought around whicl the work of the Califomia IrriEation Associa-tion is today revolving. This thought was merely lha.-tenough flood'water goes to waste in the Sacramento valley every year to irligateevery arid acr"e n the San Joaquin Valley. This water shoulal beplaced upon San Joaquin Vallev la;d.ColonelMArshall proposed eservoirsand dams ro conse|ve hisf loodwaterand Lhen o carr.y t in a grea(canal haj $ould pracl ical lyencircleboth jhe Sacramenlo nd San Joaquinvallpys. He proposedalso to cany water to the arid and hill-locked valleys of th ioastcouniiesby meansof .anals. tunnels. and pumping planrs. And healso prolosed tuming Kern river into a tunnel tlirougi the Tehachapimountains and making it available for Souther-nCalifornia.The Califomia Iuigation Association entered enthusiasticallvinto t le exploitat ionot tha Marshall plan, noj so much with thethoughi of promoling this ps icular plan as wirh arousjngpublic n-lerest n somesol1 oI a plan har ng a similar object. I t su..epded nobtaining a legislat i \e appropfial iol l in 1920,spe t under the super-vision of a special commission headedby J. C. Forkner of Fresn6 inthe study of California's water resources. This commission,sreDort.retumed after more lhan a year of exlensive tudy and surveys,en-dorEed Ure Jundamental suggestion of Colonel Mar;hal, but propbsedcertain ref inements n carrying the plan to complet ion. In atherwords. the commissionagTeed hat the solut jon of the irr isat ionproblem_ies n puti ing the Sa.ramentovallpys f loodwalers up;n thpdryfands of the San Joaquin Valtey, but did not wholly agree a; to themethod of doins this-_ The Forkn6r coniission's report was completeal up to a certainpoint. It conceded, however, that a vast amount of additional workw'_as ecessary; lhat invesligations must be carTied on over a periodof several ears.and that the bes!pnginepringbrains obtainabl;muslbe empioyed f a lhoroughlypraaticalplan is Io be evolved._ Acting upon this suggestion he California Irr igal ion Associa_t ion resumedarl- ivi t ies t the beginningof the presen[year. A massm,eetrng f irr igai ionisls was held at Visal ia, for in ce*ajn secl ionsof Tulare counry. q,{1ere he waler problern has be.ome really acutethi"ough long continued draining of the land by pumping, the farmerslook o a supel- irr igat ionplan as promising heir onl y salvat ion.The direr"tors of lhe associalion reorganized,and ahas. A. Barlowof Bakersfield. forrner member of congTeisand always an ardent con-sprvalionist.and. student of jrrigatjon, was made president. Stepswple rmmedralery naugurated1o raise a fund of $100.000 or theconlinuance f the wajer survey. Part of jhis moneyhas been aisedand the balances expected ocome n contdbutionsarom armers anclIrom Duslnessmcn and concprnswho afe vit . ly inlprested. i i is theexpectation lhat this fund will be augmented by another legislativeapproprtatton at the next session

A SUPM-IRRICATIONSYSTEMWhether it be known as the Marshall plan or by any other name,the super-irrigation s!.stem is not to be the work oi a day, or a year,or perhaps even-of a decade. Many of those now ardenily strivingto promote it will never live to see its realization. But thev forese-e


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TheRealtaBtrue ook ol California 279just how necessaly this pian $'ili be to the next generation and thegenerations that are to follow.Califomia's population is growing by leaps and bounds. The cityof Ins Angeles looks to the not far distant future when it wil l have apopulatior in excessof two millions. The San Fr-anciscoBav distdctis keeping pace with this gfowth. These two gleat centers of popula-tion must be fed. The world iD general is continually demanding agleater supply of Califonia pr'oducls. The San Joaquin Valley, con-taining half the tillabie land of Califomia susceDtible of intensivecultivation, nust supply thc major food wants of the great Califomiacities and.must meet the \,!.orlddemand for Califotnia pr.oducts.It takes Deither a prophet nor the son of a pr.ophet o see that infifty years, or perhaps in half that time. there will be a market forevera.thirg that the 8,000,000acres of the Salr Joaquirl Valley landcouldproduce. Yt perhaps 3,000,000of theseacres must remain onlypartialll. productive urtil the thild nember of the trinity of agricut-tural success,water', is brought to the land. And to the bdngiDg o{it to th land the Califonja Inigatjon Association is dedicating its


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Irrigation by Al. C. Joy Publicity Director San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation Fresno

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